[CAUT] CAUT endorsement

[Israel Stein]

To the list,

>If you have the chops to do an efficient and solid concert grand tuning to a solid standard, you can do the rest as
> well. That is the ability we are aiming to assess.

Ah, I see. Testing by inference. That's an interesting concept. I can think of several tuners who do a wonderful concert tuning - and wouldn't last a week in a University environment. Different kind of chops. But that's neither here nor there... 

But then, folks, let me see if I can get this straight. After having mocked those faculty search committees for their penchant for demanding concert tuning from their applicants, we are now going to duplicate what they do? Are we perhaps thinking that once they see the CAUT credential they will just dispense with their concert tuning and take our word for it? Dream on... So now we are going to use up lots of PTG resources, manpower, time and effort - to duplicate what already is being done and will continue to be done by the hiring institutions themselves? Something just doesn't add up here, for me. 

If I want to know that someone has a certain array of skills, I would want to see them demonstrate those skills directly. And, believe me, there are plenty ways to do that - objectively and reliably. 

Israel Stein 


Original message:

Let me add a bit about this notion of "concert tuning" versus "whatever other kind of tuning" there may be. We (the skills test subcommittee) discussed a number of ideas about tuning. We thought a caut needed to be able to do an efficient bang-up job of pitch change, and come up with a good solid tuning in the end in a pretty short period of time. Ken Eschete expressed another side to what kind of chops a caut needs to have, saying we should check the seventh tuning of the day and see how that measured up, and then the same after a week, a month. . . Maybe a bit exaggerated, but the idea is one of focus, efficiency, chops to get it done, and the professional attitude that says every single one is a quality tuning, with a focus on solid.

            And we also discussed, for very good reason, on ability to produce a "concert tuning." That is where we contribute to the end purpose of the department: the actual public performance of music. That's what we're all there for (the whole music department), training students for that and contributing our bit to the process. 

            What is a concert tuning? Well, I would say it is a tuning done with extra care, one that is able to stand up to public scrutiny. Obviously every single tuning we do should meet that standard, ideally. So we are really just talking about taking a little extra time and trouble to make sure we got it as good as possible. In the same sense, playing a piece of music in public performance isn't essentially different from practicing or playing for a lesson, except that it is more focused on making sure the final result is as good as possible. Concert prep of a piano is a very similar thing: nothing essentially different from any other prep and regulation and voicing, except that the standards and expectations are higher. 

            Is "concert tuning and prep" a significant part of the workload? It sure is where I work. I'd put it at over 20% of my load. Even if it were only the 2% Jeff Tanner claims, it would be by far the most important 2%. It is where the department shows itself to the world. It is where the students and faculty show what they can do. It is extraordinarily important. If you don't believe that, you have no business working for a music department.

            Now when it came to developing a draft notion of how to structure a caut tuning test, it was pretty obvious that major pitch change would present considerable practical obstacles, as would having someone tune seven pianos in a day <G>. So we decided to focus on "concert tuning" but bring along as many of the other abilities we had identified as we could. Efficiency and ability to produce within a real life time frame was one. Another was solidity. There are plenty of possible ways to go about evaluating "concert level tuning." Many people I have heard in discussions on the topic say that we should just use "CTE level" tuning as the standard (meaning the current test passed at 90% or above in all segments, done aurally). That is certainly one route we could have taken. We chose a completely different route. We chose to look at the real life chops to get a complete piano done and end up with solid and clean unisons. And we added a bit about stretch as well, but I think I'
ll leave that for another discussion.

            The point I am trying to make here is that this is not some kind of rarified standard we are proposing. It is very much an "in the trenches" standard, one that applies not just to the concert grand, but to the practice piano and every single other piano we face. If you have the chops to do an efficient and solid concert grand tuning to a solid standard, you can do the rest as well. That is the ability we are aiming to assess.

 

Regards,

Fred Sturm

University of New Mexico

fssturm at unm.edu

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